60 WEST OE ENGLAND VETERINARY MEDICAL ASSOCIATION. 
with sunken soles or pumiced feet, may exist for months to such an 
extent that the animal would not walk a half a mile in an hour 
without being whipped, yet such cases rarely proceed to sloughing ; 
but under the treatment recommended in this paper the animal will 
be able to resume ordinary work and trot, free from lameness, in a 
few days. I have known on many occasions, after severe exertion, 
the congested vessels to become ruptured, and bleeding at the 
coronet ensue. 
Treatment. —That which I have for several years practised has 
been attended with invariable success; whether the case be acute, 
subacute, or chronic, the feet strong and upright, or flat, providing 
that separation has not actually commenced, or the soles dropped or 
sunken, before I was called to see it; even in the latter case the treat¬ 
ment will remove the lameness, and render the horse serviceable in 
a very short time; it will also assist nature in restoring the normal 
structure. 
My first step in the shape of treatment, whether the horse be up 
or down, is to get tacked on two extremely stout, wide-webbed, and 
long-bar shoes, made from iron about twice the ordinary thickness 
that this particular horse’s shoes are made from ; make them 
gradually thin from behind the quarters, so that the heel part of the 
shoes are wide and thin as possible, and fitted rocker fashion, to 
allow the weight of the horse to be on that part; put them on with 
leather soles, using only sufficient nails to ensure their staying on 
for two or three days, by which time the greater part of the pain 
will have passed away, so that more nails can then be put in if 
necessary. If the case is not a severe one, plain shoes, made after 
the same fashion, with leathers, will do, although I prefer the bar 
shoes. If the heels of the feet are very strong and high, lower 
them ; if not, don’t cut or pare the feet in any other way. I also 
give at once an ordinary dose of physic ; and as soon as I can possibly 
get the shoes on, I compel the animal to walk on soft ground, if 
convenient; if not, on the road, or round his box for a short time, 
until a little of the soreness passes off. If the animal is so lame 
that he cannot be made to move without a person following with a 
whip, I order that to be done, knowing that, however much he may 
require it at first (cruel as it may seem), he will not want it more 
than two or three days, as the lameness decreases rapidly. In 
severe acute cases, if the exercise appear to distress the animal very 
much, continue it only about twenty minutes or half an hour at 
first, allowing an interval of from one to two hours before repeating 
it, after which it may be gradually increased, as the more he takes 
the sooner will the lameness be removed. Repeat the physic every 
third or fourth day (depending in a measure on the effects of the 
previous dose, although I never saw any ill effects from the repeated 
physicing in such cases), until the lameness is removed and the 
horse fit to work; do not then, from mistaken kindness, allow the 
animal to be turned to grass or into a loose box for a month’s 
idleness, but order him to be worked or exercised daily, otherwise 
there will be a liability to a recurrence, as it takes some con- 
